Church Shopping

19072009

No church is perfect. Even the one you attend every week — the one you have chosen to join, the one that feels like home. Like an old friend, you know where its flaws are and accept it just the same … warts and all.

We’re currently searching for a church, and I have to say, the process of “church shopping” is incredibly unnatural simply because it turns that feeling of acceptance on its head. When you only have a one-hour worship service to evaluate every aspect of a particular church, everything comes under intense (and often unfair) scrutiny. On your first Sunday at a church, every word the preacher says becomes representative of the church’s creed; every note of music becomes representative of the congregational worship style. You find yourself caring about things like stained glass windows (or lack thereof); methods of taking communion; etc.

But something remarkable happens, the more and more you go back to the same church. You begin to make allowances as you see why they do things that way. The more people you meet and the more you become involved, the more you (hopefully) realize that this church is just another part of that same body of Christ.